Zeinal Bava joins a growing list of Chief Executives who have been fired from Oi, the Brazilian telecoms operator which recently merged with Portugal Telecom.
Bava used to run PT but left to focus on Oi as the heat was turned up in Lisbon under allegations surrounding PT’s authorisation and management of inexplicable and monstrously large loans to Espirito Santo subsidiary Rioforte.
Oi has had three Chief Executives in four years but Bava’s dismissal at the behest of powerful shareholders comes with a bonus, a €5.4 million 'miss you already' bonus plus a three year ban from working in telecoms.
Zeinal Bava will get 36 monthly installments of €150,000. Add this to the estimated €50 million that he has earned during his career at Portugal Telecom, plus bonuses during the PT merger with Oi, and the 48 year old is not in the poor house just yet.
In a statement sent to the Brazilian stock exchange, Oi reported that Baval will be temporarily replaced by Bayard de Paoli Gontijo, the exotically named financial director.
At first Bava seemed to have been supported by the shareholders of Oi but the Rioforte scandal continued to pick up speed in Lisbon and, as Bava was running PT at the time and denied knowing anything about the loans to Rioforte, he thought it best to resign from PT and slip off to Brazil. This was not enough.
In one month, the Chief Executives of both PT and Oi are out, leaving PT up for sale to the highest bidder and Oi, in as much debt as ever it was, now looking for a new person to run the company.
